Expressions Dance Company: "Propel (the next step)" -
Bille Brown Studio, 28 February -
“Propel” is an extension of “LaunchPad”, an annual program set up by Expressions Dance Company (EDC) to support emerging choreographers. In “LaunchPad” choreographers worked with the EDC dancers in the creation of ten-minute duos, which were shown in a studio setting at EDC headquarters; “Propel” saw two of those choreographers, Liesel Zink and Lucas Jervies, expand their duos into half-hour works using all the company dancers. The performance venue also moved for this season to the more theatrical setting of the Bille Brown Studio, home of the Queensland Theatre Company (QTC), and the number of EDC dancers increased to seven.
Zink’s Synapse opened the program, focusing on the interactions between members of a group dropped, as she puts it, “on a blank slate of a world.” Two wide, parallel white strips of flooring delineate the performance space; the rear strip marked out in orange as if paving stones. In silence the dancers (in everyday dress) form tight upright groups that break up and reform using movement that builds slowly from the pedestrian. The appeal of belonging to the group as well as the competitive desire of the individual are clearly conveyed by movement that has an almost robotic quality with elements of ‘pop’; the dancers moving like chess pieces across the space.
The emergence of one as dominant changes the dynamic of the group, which fragments, leading into the second half of the work. This had a beautifully fluid section showing both strength and control, as Jack Ziesing manipulated Samantha Mitchell, around, under and over his body while he stood on a chair facing upstage.
The sudden deconstruction of the back strip of flooring by the dancers into its orange outlined pieces, and its slow reconstruction into an indeterminate pathway, forms the closing moments of the work. This is a promising idea, which could have been more fully realised. Focus is drawn more to the relaying of the pieces, rather than to the simultaneous movement occurring on top of the rearranged floor. The disappearance into blackout of four dancers before this is also a puzzle, while the final walking exit of the remaining three makes it an unsatisfying conclusion to an otherwise engaging work.
Jervies’ work Apples and Eve begins literally with a “big bang”, launching the audience into his playful, satirical exploration of the ideology behind creationism, “the stuff and rigour of religion”. Here we have a contest between a rather effete God in a white half tutu (a bearded Benjamin Chapman) and an unforgiving but gloriously decorative Mother Nature (Elise May), festooned in greenery, including long gloves and an apple encrusted skirt. It is easy to see which side of the creation versus evolution debate Jervies sits on!
This is dance theatre at its most entertaining, skilfully constructed and clearly articulated. Stylised movement including reference to our Neanderthal ancestors, some dance (I would’ve liked more), and voice all contribute to Jervies’s satire, with reference to issues of misogyny, objectification, control and even domestic violence. There is even a gentle send-up of ballet’s iconic Swan Lake in both the white tutu costuming of God and the Angels, and in God’s movement construct of parallel courus and “swan” arms.
Mitchell and Ziesing both charmed as Eve and Adam; their sexual discovery of each other with guttural chants of “yum” and “yes”, while perhaps a little long, was nevertheless humorous and cleverly conceived. Both showed strong, expressive use of their voice, but Mitchell in particular had wonderful comic timing. Her vibrant interpretation of the hapless, but finally victorious Eve was pivotal to the work’s realisation.
"Propel" is an important initiative and its support by an Australia Council Young and Emerging Artists grant, a well targeted use of the taxpayer dollar. As the first beneficiaries, Zink and Jervies, each with very different but quite distinctive choreographic voices, should now be better placed to continue their creative journeys.
– DENISE RICHARDSON